#9099
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    I have a Bavaria 34 from late 2001. The arrangement on our boat is that the top rudder bearing is housed in a large half of a sphere made of GRP which self alignes the top bearing as it sits in a half sphere cast into the deck moulding. This is the raised GRP section you can see surrounding the rudder stock at deck level. This is a simple pendulum arrangement to allow the rudder stock to self align the top bearing when it is pushed up through the bottom bearing. The important point to note is that the GRP half spheres should not be allowed to turn relative to one another. All the movement must be between the rudder stock and the rudder bearings. Some of the early boats had a problem with the Grp half sphere turning in the deck moulding as the top bearing was too tight.
    Not sure your boat is the same, but having established this simple way of aligning the top and bottom bearings I would expect that it is the norm on all Bavarias.